Jordan Love ascended to another level as a passer over the second half of this season, but he left room for improvement as a runner. While he doesn’t need to be Lamar Jackson or Josh Allen, it would serve Love’s all-around game to recognize the opportunities where he can pick up first down with his legs.
By all accounts, Love had an excellent season as a passer in his first year as a starter. He was second in passing touchdowns, seventh in passing yards, and ninth in QBR. However, in watching how Green Bay’s plays developed throughout the season, particularly on third down, Love seemed to hesitate to run for first downs.
Love tallied 247 yards rushing on the season. He averaged 14.5 yards per game, good for 16th in the league amongst quarterbacks who played more than half the season. Love started the season scrambling more, topping 20 yards in five of the first seven games. However, he totaled only 28 yards over the season’s final eight games, good for just 3.5 yards per contest.
It’s not just about racking up yards and running just to run. Instead, when a quarterback is going to run, it’s often explicitly designed to move the chains. It may not be surprising that Jalen Hurts led all quarterbacks by converting 68 first downs with his legs, largely thanks to many Tush Pushes. The rest of the leaderboard isn’t shocking, either. After Hurts, Josh Allen had 57 rushing first downs, Lamar Jackson had 48, and Justin Fields had 43. Add in a few effective runners like Joshua Dobbs (31), Patrick Mahomes (27), and even Trevor Lawrence (23) and Dak Prescott (21), and you eventually get into Love’s range. Love had only 16 rushing first downs on the season.
When things are going well, like they were against the Dallas Cowboys on Wild Card weekend, Love doesn’t need to run the football. Love only had three rushing yards in Dallas. But against the San Francisco 49ers, the Packers were in desperate need of one or two more plays down the stretch to help pull off the upset.
On third-and-two early in the third quarter, Green Bay would have loved to respond better to San Francisco’s 52-yard field goal that narrowed Green Bay’s lead to 21-17. Facing a three-and-out, Love opted for a difficult pass across his body to Aaron Jones, who was trailing away from the play, rather than tucking the ball and fighting for two big yards. The path to a first down wasn’t clear, and it’s hard to fault a quarterback for keeping his eyes downfield as the pocket broke down. The next evolution of Love’s game would be to recognize that the difficulty of the throw to Jones is too high and find a way to make a play on the ground.
Love also needs to be better in short-yardage situations. He might not have the situational advantage that Hurts has with Philadelphia’s offensive line. But Love is essentially the same size as Tom Brady, who was the king of quarterback sneaks. Getting stopped on fourth-and-one on Green Bay’s second drive of the game was a huge early momentum swing because a touchdown to cap off that drive would have changed the entire tenor of the first half.
That was a tad more graceful than the stumbling false start that helped a victory slip away against the Atlanta Falcons early in the season, but the sneak is still far from automatic for Green Bay. Love had 12 attempts to convert on third or fourth down, converting eight with two fumbles. That 66% clip is quite a bit shy of the 92% success rate that Jason Kelce had for Philadelphia, with far fewer attempts, too. It’s also below the 76% success rate that Aaron Rodgers had in similar scenarios throughout his time in Green Bay and below the NFL average of approximately 73%.
Green Bay’s late-season run to vault into the playoffs and get a few plays away from appearing in another NFC Championship game will provide plenty of fodder for offseason chatter, particularly surrounding Jordan Love’s place in the quarterback tiers. If he wants to be considered a top-10 quarterback, especially as defensive coordinators amass more tape, he should focus on improving with his legs. Being able to convert when plays break down is a hallmark of winning quarterbacks, and Love would do well to add a few more rushing first downs to his stats in 2024.
